Wednesday, August 3

GW Bridge

We drive under the George Washington Bridge which I once ran over weekly training for the '97 NY City Marathon. And here is a factoid : As of 2007, the GW has the greatest vehicular capacity of any bridge in the world, carrying approximately 106 million autos a year, making it the busiest car bridge in the world (according to the Port Authority of NY and NJ).


Here is what Le Corbusier said:
"The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city. It is painted an aluminum color and, between water and sky, you see nothing but the bent cord supported by two steel towers. When your car moves up the ramp the two towers rise so high that it brings you happiness; their structure is so pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh. The car reaches an unexpectedly wide apron; the second tower is very far away; innumerable vertical cables, gleaming against the sky, are suspended from the magisterial curve which swings down and then up. The rose-colored towers of New York appear, a vision whose harshness is mitigated by distance." (Source: When the Cathedrals were White)

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